Grade Inflation???

Associated Press is report that national assessments are not correlating with grade point averages of students. Is this a sign of grade inflation? The article suggests that it is and I would agree just from what I see in my school district. Teachers through the district's approval do give students extra points on exams, quarterly grades, and semester averages just because they are taking harder courses such as AP. My district awards one-half point or .5 to each student who is taking an advanced course; however, even in regular courses, I have seen students given extra points if they passed semester exams. Our district even has an incentive that if you passed your Standards of Learning test, you can be exempted from the exam.

There have been many questions raised this year by the community with these additional points offered. Numerous individuals have written into our local paper, the Free Lance-Star to express their opinion.

I do not know if there is research that would show that grade inflation occurs more frequently has a result of NCLB but it certainly should be looked into for two reasons. First, do administrators and teachers of public schools feel pressured with the requirement of adequate yearly progress (AYP) within the federal mandate? Second have school systems feared the competition between charter, private, and speciality schools that grades within public school systems are showing signs of inflation?